Monday, October 24, 2005

Wilma and Bettie

No, we were not in the path of this latest absurd storm. Wilma, indeed.
My New York Realtor called me yesterday while I was shopping for materials for Buttercup's Halloween costume. Buttercup wants to dress as one of our dogs. I will post photos.
My Realtor wanted to know if we were in harm's way. She has no concept of the geography of Florida. That's OK - I probably couldn't point to her part of New York on an unlabelled map.
Yes - we are planning to move to New York. We're looking for acreage. We're going to farm Christmas trees and hope. We're going to freeze our heinders off in the winter and wonder what the hell we were thinking, and we will remind ourselves that we were thinking about spring, summer and autumn, which together last about as long as winter.
We are looking at homes in villages. Villages! You have no idea how beautiful that word is to me.
You should know that I am married to George Bailey - actually the Bizarro George Bailey. He has spent his life trying to get INTO Bedford Falls.
Come March, when the permafrost turns to mud, he and I will pack the younguns in the wagon and strike out for his Bedford Falls. We have fallen in love with a house, and will talk soon to a lender to find out if there is any hope of making an offer on it sooner than our move.
(***If you are my New York Realtor and you're reading this, please note that the language I use - "fallen in love" is just literary hyperbole. We could take it or leave it. We're not that excited. Really.***)
The one difficulty with this decision has been our son, who will turn 17 in a couple of weeks. He is ambivalent about the prospect of moving. He has threatened to stay behind with friends. I'm not sure how this will shake out.
I do know that I'm going to mention the necessity of buying him a 4-wheeler so he can survery the Christmas trees on the back nine.

3 Comments:

I'm glad to hear your news, both that you were out of the hurricane's path and that you are moving to NY. I hope you post pictures of your dream house (oh, I mean your vaguely interesting take-it-or-leave-it house).

When I finished grad school and accepted a teaching job in a distant state, I spent the whole summer listening to my daughters (age 16 and 13) tell me how I was ruining their lives. Lucky for all of us, it turned out okay, and they ended up being happy about the move. I know the anxiety you must be having w/your 17yo. I hope things turn out okay for you, too.

Good luck with the move. And imho, blizzards are MUCH easier to deal with than hurricanes!